Last Sunday night, Honey’s Anime had the chance to attend the screening of first episode and seiyuu talkshow event of Spiritpact ~Yomi no Chigiri~, thanks to the kind invitation from our friends at Studio Emon. Knowing the success of Studio Emon’s animations that have previously been aired in Japan such as Enmusubi no Youko-chan and of course, the first season of Spiritpact, Honey-chan arrived at the event excitedly to see a considerable amount of female fans who are already lining up before the studio even opens. Thankfully the friendly, enthusiastic staff were quick to help and showed Honey-chan the way!
With barely suppressed excitement, we took pictures of the splendid display of character standees and the second season’s key visual in front of the studio. Even though the event began a little late, the fans who lined up were still in high spirits as they filed into the studio while Honey-chan followed the staff to the seats prepared for us. We really couldn’t wait to see the first episode and the cast!
Spiritpact ~Yomi no Chigiri~
- Genre : Action, Comedy, Supernatural, Magic, Shounen-ai
- Airing Date : February 24
- Studios : HAOLINERS Emon
When It Started
If any of you hadn’t been following the first season of Spiritpact (and consequently missing out on a really good series), this series is originally based on the number one Chinese web manhua published by Tencent Comic, and written by Pingzi. The animated series is directed by Li Haoling and written by Torii Reiko, which originally aired in China in Spring 2016. The Japanese dub version, which is the one that aired in Japan, divided the original 20 episodes into two seasons, and aired the first 10 episodes as the first season on January 2017. Now, following the success of the first season, we are looking forward to see the second season: Spiritpact ~Yomi no Chigiri~, which would be aired on Tokyo MX this February 24!
Spiritpact tells the story of You Keika, whose family had been very powerful exorcists. However, ever since losing his parents, Keika had to struggle to eke out a living as a street fortune-teller by day and a computer repairman by night. While searching the junkyard for computer parts, Keika accidentally bumped into the most powerful exorcist, the Youmeishi, Tanmoku Ki, who was trying to purify an evil spirit. This accidental meeting changed Keika’s life in a way he never expected: on his way home, he was hit by a truck and died, and found out that as a ghost, he would disappear in seven days. There’s only one solution for him: make a soul pact with Tanmoku Ki and become his spirit shadow.
Basic Info
| Length of event | About one and a half hour. |
|---|---|
| Place/Location | Ikebukuro HUMAX Cinema. |
What Happened:
It really didn’t take long before the staff led us to our seats; the cinema isn’t too big, so when we were ushered into the second-row seats, Honey-chan might have had a secret freaking out session at Bee-kun because of how close we were to the stage, and therefore, to the cast who would make their appearances later! Thankfully Bee-kun was able to calm her down a little bit, and we all settled down comfortably with high expectation. The movie screen ran the PV for Spiritpact ~Yomi no Chigiri~ repeatedly as all around us, fans were also taking their seats and conversed among themselves in hushed, excited tones.
Finally, the event started with Sorami Yuki, the voice of Kau, entering the studio to everyone’s applause. She was our emcee for the night! After a short but very cute introduction, she called out the rest of the cast who were scheduled to appear as guests for the event: there was Iguchi Yuuichi, the voice of You Keika, who also did Serizawa Souta in Rinne no Lagrange and Hotarumaru in Touken Ranbu, and there was Takeuchi Shunsuke, the voice of Tanmoku Ki who is known for his role as Archer of Black in
Fate/Apocrypha and the Producer of IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls, and lastly, none other than Sugiyama Noriaki, the voice of In Tetsu, who is widely known for roles such as Uchiha Sasuke in Naruto and Emiya Shirou of the Fate series. Honestly, Honey-chan was almost beside herself to see these popular seiyuu on the stage together!
With introductions out of the way, Sorami opened the talk show with a short explanation of Spiritpact series, to which Takeuchi asked the audience if everyone present have already watched the first season. Surprisingly, there are a few people in the audience who haven’t watched through the first series! Sorami decided that it is just as well, since they were going to do a short walkthrough of what happened in the first season before actually screening the first episode of the second season.
The cast talked about Keika’s death scene and meeting with Tanmoku Ki for a bit, but then the screen jumped ahead and showed the kissing scene between Tanmoku Ki and You Keika. “This is Tanmoku Ki and You Keika’s first ki—nope, it’s not a kiss!” Sorami stressed, as the rest of the cast giggled on stage. “This is the scene where Tanmoku Ki gave Keika the power to protect Keika’s friends. It is definitely not a kiss!” The entire studio burst into chuckles and giggles as the cast started discussing the significance of the ‘not-a-kiss!’ scene. Sorami asked the cast about their impression the first time they saw this scene, to which Takeuchi answered, “I simply realized at that moment, ah, this is the kind of relationship between Tanmoku Ki and You Keika.”
The cast then talked about their experience in dubbing the original Chinese animated series, and Iguchi shared how the recording process was always in high tension. Takeuchi said that while he’d dubbed a number of western movies himself, unlike Sugiyama, dubbing an animated series is a rare experience for him, so he was very fascinated with the difference of culture and way of talking that he had to convey through his acting. Sugiyama shared that he was very careful in how he tried to translating how taste and expressions that was conveyed for Chinese audience into something he could convey for Japanese audience. The difference in Chinese and Japanese culture that is rife in Spiritpact seems to be a common topic that the cast like to discuss about, especially in how to make sure the nuances of scenes translate well for the Japanese audience to understand.
The discussion then turned towards how the cast was surprised the first time they found out that Spiritpact series actually has henshin scenes—both You Keika and Kau get to transform a la magical boys and girls to their more powerful forms for battles. Sorami, however, later stated that she was excitedly hoping to have more henshin scenes in the second season. They talked briefly about scenes which left impressions on them; Iguchi said he was amused at Shito Ritsu’s first appearance in the first season, especially because Toyonaga Toshiyuki put in a lot of adlibs in voicing Ritsu. Takeuchi shared that he was very curious about the story of Rakugetsu and his past life, hoping that there would be answers in the second season. Sugiyama agreed and added that he was also very intrigued of In Tetsu and Tanmoku Ki’s relationship. Later on, the cast got to joke around about how they wish some of the supporting characters—such as Tanmoku Grandmother—to have actual names. Iguchi and Takeuchi also shared how Ookubo Rumi, the voice of Shin Shiyou, liked to joke about how Spiritpact doesn’t have a triangle love and insisting that it’s really only between Ki and Keika.
The first season walkthrough ended on this note, and Sorami led the talk to the coming first episode of Season Two that would be screened after the talk. She asked the cast to tell the audience the interesting parts of second season, but not to spoil the audience! “Then we can’t really say anything,” Iguchi joked, to the laughter of everyone in the studio. Takeuchi then said that one of the interesting things in the second season is how Ki and Keika’s relationship changed and become closer in the time between the end of the first season to the start of the second season. Sugiyama also added that it’s interesting how Ki’s reactions towards Keika could change—from being very cold towards Keika to being very warm—and that we could look forward to enjoying that. Ultimately, the cast put that there is a reason why it was the four of them who appeared in the event, and that the second season would showcase new relationships between the four of their characters. Intriguing!
Iguchi also added that of course, everyone should be looking forward the new characters appearing in the second season! Sorami then asked the staff if it was okay to announce the new characters, and we were given a visual and short introduction of the two new characters, including the seiyuu who had been casted for them! The first one was Shinryu Shouken, who would be voiced by Satou Takuya, and the second one was Shinryu Sekijin, who would be voiced by none other than Chiba Susumu! Honey-chan was extremely excited to see more of her favorite seiyuu in the cast for Spiritpact. Sorami remarked that as the dubbing process is ongoing and they have only dubbed up to episode three, even the cast were still in the dark about the relationship between these two characters. Hmm, what sort of people would they be and what kind of role would they play in the story of Spiritpact? Not only the cast, Honey-chan and Bee-kun were super curious now!
Before the screening began, Sorami read us a heartfelt message from the director of Spiritpact series, Li Haoling. The message thanked the audience for coming and for loving Spiritpact, promised that the second season would be delivered in increasingly better quality, and stated that the director himself was very excited for the audience to see the second season. He also wished that the audience would continue to love Spiritpact and have fun with the episode screening.
Then, we finally got to see the first episode of the second season! Don’t worry, Honey-chan and Bee-kun aren’t going to spoil you on the episode, but we’d just like to assure you that it was amazing! Li Haoling really did come through with his promise to deliver a higher quality animation—the battle scenes were filled with tension, and the emotional scenes might just break your tearducts. It also ended in an exciting, intriguing note, and now Honey-chan and Bee-kun really couldn’t wait for the second season to air and watch episode two!
After the screening, the cast entered the studio and got back up on stage, and we had a brief discussion about the first episode. Even the cast seemed to be very curious about various plot points of Spiritpact, excitedly sharing their various thoughts with the audience. However, Sorami had to end the discussion in order to announce the on air information and twitter campaign for the series! Make sure you read carefully the instruction below to get official presents from Spiritpact ~Yomi no Chigiri~!
- The campaign would run from February 1 to February 28.
- Follow the official account of First Kitchen, @FK_PR, and retweet its current pinned tweet about Spiritpact campaign. If you’re not sure which it is, just click over here!
- One winner would be chosen randomly to receive a new illustration of You Keika signed by Iguchi Yuuichi, and another winner would be chosen randomly to receive a new illustration of Tanmoku Ki signed by Takeuchi Shunsuke.
- Additionally, another 20 winners chosen randomly would receive original clearfiles! Do check out the official website of Spiritpact ~Yomi no Chigiri~ for more information here, or follow its official Twitter account, @Spiritpact!
- There are a lot more campaigns for official presents that you could follow, including the currently running Valentine campaign, which simply required you to follow the official account @Spiritpact and retweet this to win original illustration postcards!
- Lastly, the Second Season Celebration Campaign is also running until February 24, which you could do by following @Spiritpact, and then tweet your own Spiritpact fanarts. Don’t forget to put the hashtag for the event: #スピパクECイベント! You might just win the chance of having your art appear as end cards for episode 11 and 12 for Spiritpact ~Yomi no Chigiri~, or showcased in the official website!
Is that all? Nope, Spiritpact was being very generous to the event audience by holding a lottery corner! The audience instantly perked up and excitedly watched the cast draw three randomized seat numbers to receive original manga illustration postcards. Additionally, another four winners were randomly chosen to receive illustrated sign boards by the guest cast.They were very cute, Honey-chan was very sad that she didn’t get any of them.
In the end, all fun times must end. Sorami sadly announced that the event would be over soon, and after a taking commemorative photo of the event (in which Iguchi made funny faces and got a laugh out of the audience), each seiyuu finally gave their closing statements and said goodbye. They all told us to enjoy the second season, especially since the second season would be very interesting and they had worked hard to deliver it, and would be looking forward to meet the fans again to talk about Spiritpact in the future.
Final Thoughts
While Honey-chan had attended a lot of anime screening and talk events before, this event felt super special in how enthusiastic the cast were and how they didn’t distance themselves from the fans. It really felt like the cast were part of the fans, just talking and laughing as we discussed Spiritpact’s story and characters, and it was very enjoyable! We’re really looking forward to watch Spiritpact ~Yomi no Chigiri~ now, especially with the two new characters and their seiyuu joining the series—who wouldn’t be excited for Chiba Susumu? February 24 really can’t come fast enough!
Author: Roti Susu